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VHS and DVD releases of Coronation Street
There have been numerous episodes of Coronation Street and its spin-offs released on the VHS and DVD home video formats. 1980s The Magic of Coronation Street On 16th November 1982 Granada released a VHS video entitled The Magic of Coronation Street - Distant Memories 1960-1964. Running at 172 minutes, it featured six episodes of the programme, along with specially-filmed sequences featuring Annie Walker, Len Fairclough and Elsie Tanner. In 1985, The Magic Of Coronation Street was reissued as two separate videos, each featuring three episodes, by Vestron Video. The episodes on the tapes are: *Episode 1 (9th December 1960) - the programme's first episode. *Episode 16 (1st February 1961) - the residents are evacuated to the Mission following a gas leak. *Episode 108 (25th December 1961) - Christmas Day on the street *Episode 165 (11th July 1962) - Elsie Tanner loses Bill Gregory and Ken and Val become enagaged. *Episode 317 (25th December 1963) - Dennis Tanner pulls a This Is Your Life surprise on Annie Walker *Episode 421 (23rd December 1964) - the residents put on pantomime for local children. The Jubilee Years On 30th August 1985, Vestron Video marked the programme's 25th anniversary by releasing two VHS tapes entitled The Jubilee Years - Part One and The Jubilee Years - Part Two. These featured a previously unseen character named Alice Hughes revisiting Coronation Street, remembering old characters, and catching up with current Street residents Ken Barlow, Deirdre Barlow, Hilda Ogden and Betty Turpin. The video was launched at the Vidtel retail traders conference with a special party hosted by Bill Podmore, Johnny Briggs and Christopher Quinten. The Life and Loves of Elsie Tanner This video tape was released in 1987, and featured the characters Linda Cheveski (Elsie's daughter), Emily Bishop and Mike Baldwin recalling Elsie's time on the Street. The production hints that Elsie has died, despite this being an event that has never been referred to in the actual series. Patricia Phoenix, who played Elsie, had passed away the previous year. In May 2011, Dennis Tanner returned to Coronation Street and confirmed that Elsie died in a car accident along with Bill Gregory in 2004, meaning that the video is not an actual part of the show's canon. 1990s 30th Anniversary Set On 5th November 1990, ten VHS tapes were released by Windsong Video Productions to mark the show's 30th anniversary. Each tape featured four episodes from a specific year and was introduced by a character who was heavily featured in the stories of that year (for example, Cyril Turpin died in 1974, therefore Betty Driver, who played his wife Betty Turpin, introduced the 1974 tape). Originally only a UK release, these tapes were reissued on the NTSC VHS format a year later for viewing in North America. Time Life Releases Time Life Distribution produced twenty VHS tapes at monthly intervals starting in December 1994 for UK release. Each tape ran for one-and-a-half hours and consisted of a compilation of footage of a certain character or characters with a relationship to each other with linking narration inserts presented by Judy Finnegan. These tapes were researched and written by the-then programme archivist Daran Little. They were not available for purchase in the shops but only by mail-order at £11.99 plus £2.00 postage per month. The first video concerning the part played in the programme by Bet Gilroy was available at an introductory price of £5.99. The tapes were as follows: *Bet Gilroy *Ken Barlow *Annie Walker *Ena Sharples and Elsie Tanner *Elsie Tanner and Len Fairclough *Ena Sharples, Minnie Caldwell and Martha Longhurst *Emily Bishop and Mavis Wilton *Alf and Audrey Roberts *Rita Sullivan *Stan and Hilda Ogden *Alec Gilroy *Deirdre Barlow *Gail Platt *Jack and Vera Duckworth *Ken Barlow and Mike Baldwin *Curly Watts *The McDonalds *Reg Holdsworth *Raquel Watts *Des Barnes The Women of Coronation Street Released on 26th October 1998, this Granada media video saw the return of Jean Alexander playing the part of Hilda Ogden with scenes set in her Derbyshire cottage as Betty Williams came for a visit and the two women reminisced over past events on the programme with many clips to illustrate their trip down memory lane. The Rover Returns This omnibus edition of the spin-off "soap bubble" Coronation Street - After Hours as released on Monday 15th November 1999, just two days after the last of the six episodes had been transmitted. New captions for both the titles and end credits were used to substitute for the original episodic credits although an error meant that the opening writer caption for Episode 1 was retained (crediting Peter Whalley) and the other remaining writers, Phil Ford, Tom Elliott and David Lane, received no credit on the tape, although they were named on the casing. The video included a special fifteen minute "making of" documentary which featured interviews with Julie Goodyear, Simon Gregson and Mary McMurray and behind the scenes footage of the cast and crew in Brighton. 2000s Coronation Street - The Early Days On 7th May 2001 Granada Video released Coronation Street - The Early Days, a double pack VHS set containing the first twelve episodes of the programme. All the episodes were unedited with the exceptions of the "End of Part One", "Part Two" and "Next Episode" captions with the closing credit sequences slowed down to prevent the theme music having to be redubbed to accommodate the missing seconds and Episode 9 (6th January 1961) which has the scene with Florrie Lindley and the Teddy Boys cut. Each episode had a superimposed caption added over the opening moments of the action which stated the episode number. This Is Coronation Street On 10th June 2003, a 2-disc DVD titled This Is Coronation Street was released for the Region 1 market (North America). It featured the fortieth anniversary documentary Forty Years on Coronation Street which was narrated by John Mills and featured many interviews with cast members, past and present, production crew and many clips from the archives. This documentary, transmitted on ITV on 28th November 2000 has never been released on DVD in the UK. The set also featured on the second disc the first five episodes of the programme from 1960, three years before their eventual release on DVD in the UK. Driven to Distraction Released on 3rd October 2005, this Peter Kay-themed DVD features the 25-minute title segment and has as bonus feature the three episodes of Coronation Street in which Kay guest-starred: *Episode 4301 (17th November 1997) as a Shopfitter *Episode 5680 and 5681 (both 30th January 2004) as Eric Gartside. All three episodes were edited down to remove their "End of Part One" and "Part Two" captions and the 2004 episodes were further missing the captions between the two instalments. In addition, Episode 4301 was reformatted in widescreen format, even though the programme did not begin transmitting in this way until January 2002. Network DVD boxsets Network DVD have released a series of DVD boxsets that cover the first five decades of the programme. Each boxset contains ten discs, which in turn feature eight selected episodes from each year of the decade. The 1970s DVDs were also released separately. *Coronation Street: 1960-1969 (DVD) - released 31st July 2006. *Coronation Street: 1970-1979 (DVD) - released 25th July 2005. *Coronation Street: 1980-1989 (DVD) - released 14th November 2005. These three sets were then re-released on 5th September 2011 in new, slimline packaging in the same style and on the same day as a fourth set, Coronation Street: 1990-1999 (DVD). Just under two months later, on 31st October, the fifth set - Coronation Street: 2000-2009 (DVD) was released. Image:1960's set.jpg|Coronation Street: 1960-1969 (DVD) Image:Coronation Street - Best Of 1970 - 79 -10 DVD Set-.jpg|Coronation Street: 1970-1979 (DVD) Image:Coronation Street 1980 - 1989 -10 Discs-.jpg|Coronation Street: 1980-1989 (DVD) Image:1960s_dvd_rerelease.jpg|1960s boxset reissue Image:1970s_dvd_rerelease.jpg|1970s boxset reissue Image:1980s_dvd_rerelease.jpg|1980s boxset reissue Image:CS DVD 1990s.jpg|Coronation Street: 1990-1999 (DVD) Image:CS DVD 2000s.jpg|Coronation Street: 2000-2009 (DVD) Pardon the Expression The first season of the spin-off series Pardon the Expression was released on DVD by Network on 4th May 2009 containing all twelve episodes of the series with broadcast dates on the casing reflecting the original Granada transmissions. Season two was released on 24th August 2009 with all twenty-four episodes and the bonus of an episode thought to have been made for transmission either at Christmas 1965 or as the first episode of the new season but never broadcast (the original artwork issued for the release in June 2009 claimed that it would only contain twenty-one episodes but this was later amended). On 12th December 2011 a combined boxset of the entire series was released. Image:Pardon the Expression 1.jpg|Season One Image:Pardon the Expression 2.jpg|Season Two Image:Pardon complete.jpg|Complete series Spin-Offs and Straight To Video/DVD Releases Granada have released a number of straight-to-video spin-off episodes and specials, the first two of which ended up being screened on television after having been available in shops. The first straight-to-video episode, Coronation Street - The Feature Length Special, was released on 9th December 1995 and featured a storyline set aboard the QE2. The television broadcast on Sunday 24th March 1996 (at 8.00pm in a slightly-edited version titled Coronation Street - The Cruise) courted controversy as Granada had previously claimed that this episode would never be seen on ITV and the tapes carried a sticker saying "Only on Video". The Times of 12th March 1997 reported that a Mr. Allan Kelley obtained a refund of £13.99 plus £2 expenses following court action. They claimed that more than 600,000 copies of the video had been sold making a profit for Granada of £700,000. Granada were not represented in court and it was stated that 263 people had complained to the Independent Television Commission (ITC) and a further 3000 to Granada direct. The ITC insisted that letter of apology be sent with a free paperback book to each complainant as a sign of goodwill but Mr. Kelley had refused to let the matter drop on point of principle. The release of the second video included a carefully-worded disclaimer pertaining to future television broadcast. The second, Viva Las Vegas! was a special set in American city of Las Vegas and was released on 1st September 1997. Written by Russell T. Davies, it featured a cameo appearance from actor Neville Buswell, who had given up his long-time role in the programme as Ray Langton twenty-one years earlier. Joan Collins also made a cameo appearance. The special, edited down from 110 to 75 minutes, was shown on television on Sunday 2nd July 2000 at 5.00pm. A third, Out of Africa, was released straight to DVD on 10th November 2008. This special was shot in South Africa and featured the return of Wendi Peters as Cilla Battersby-Brown to the programme. Other regular characters who featured were Fiz Brown, Chesney Battersby-Brown and Kirk Sutherland. The fourth, Romanian Holiday was released on DVD on 26th October 2009. This special, shot in Romania featured Roy and Hayley Cropper, Becky McDonald and a cameo appearance by Eddie Windass. The fifth, A Knight's Tale was released on 1st November 2010 and featured the return of Curly Watts and Reg Holdsworth together with a cameo appearance by Brian Capron (Richard Hillman) as "Dickie the Boatman". Image:QE2.jpg|The Feature Length Special a.k.a The QE2 Video Image:Viva Las Vegas.jpg|Viva Las Vegas! Image:Out of Africa.jpg|Out of Africa Image:Romanian Holiday.jpg|Romanian Holiday Image:A Knight's Tale.jpg|A Knight's Tale Other releases On 4th October 2010, ITV Studios Home Entertainment released the DVD of The Road to Coronation Street which had been broadcast on BBC4 three weeks earlier. The DVD featured the complete one-hour and fifteen-minute television programme without any special features (aside from subtitles) or additional scenes. Category:Merchandise